The card game twenty-one or blackjack is a very popular card game. It is particularly popular as a casino card game involving betting. In casinos the house holds the dealer hand. In cardrooms, the house often by law is prohibited from holding the dealer hand, and one of the other players is dealer. The basic object of the game is to obtain a combined card count which beats the count of the dealer without going over twenty-one. The game is played with a common card deck or multiple decks having fifty two cards in four suits. Each suit has an ace, numerically indexed cards from two to ten, and the face cards. The face cards are jacks, queens and kings. Multiple decks can be combined together.
In the play of blackjack the dealer initially deals two cards to each player and the dealer. The cards are dealt one at a time around the table. The initial two cards to the players are either dealt both facedown or both faceup, depending upon the rules of the particular casino or cardroom involved.
The dealer receives one card faceup and the other initial card facedown. The faceup card is also called the "upcard". The face-down card is also called the "hole card". An initial wager is placed before dealing the first two cards. After the first two cards are dealt to all players, each player is offered a variety of options including: standing, hitting, splitting and doubling down. The player directs the dealer to deal zero, one or more additional cards to that particular player. Limits of betting, rules, and play vary between gaming establishments. If the player's total hand count exceeds twenty-one, then the player loses and this is often called a "bust". If the player stands with cards which count a total of twenty-one or less, then he is still in and the next player makes similar decisions about betting and additional cards. The dealer plays last and is instructed by the house to hold when a certain count is achieved, typically 17 or higher.
The best possible hand occurs when a player or dealer has a ten-count card and an ace after receiving the first two cards. This hand is referred to alternatively as a "blackjack" or "natural". A natural hand is a winning hand unless the opposing dealer or player also has a natural, in which case the play is called a push and neither the player or dealer involved lose their bet or collect from the other. A player who is dealt a natural hand is typically entitled to a bonus, such as equal to one and a half times the player's bet. All players lose if the dealer is initially dealt a natural hand, unless a player also has a natural. This is true except in the case when the player has taken what is called "insurance" (an amount usually equal to half the player's original bet).
A hand exceeding twenty-one is referred to as a "bust" or "bust hand" for both players and dealers. Players who are still in play win the hand when a dealer goes bust. The dealer wins when a player busts.
Blackjack has become one of the most popular casino card games. However, in many casinos it does not have the same popularity as gambling attractions which offer large jackpots, for example slot machines. In blackjack, winnings for each hand are limited to the amount wagered or a small multiple of the players' bets. This is in contrast to slot machines which can often be played for a chance of winning very large jackpots.
Some casinos have implemented jackpots in the game of blackjack. For instance, one blackjack variation awards a jackpot to players receiving four like value cards in the same hand. Another variation offers a jackpot for players receiving, in a single hand, seven cards which total twenty-one. These approaches have not been commercially significant. The lack of response has apparently been due to the absence of any logical relationship between the game of blackjack as it is normally played and the events which trigger such a jackpot. The lack of response may also be due to the infrequency of such jackpot events which is needed by the casino to make it possible to offer the jackpot.
Jackpots for blackjack have also been impeded by the difficulty in finding a jackpot event which is of sufficient interest to players and of a sufficiently low probability that the casino can afford to pay a jackpot on that event.
A related problem is that prior art card games offering jackpots are limited in their flexibility to offer different types of jackpots. In order to attract players, it is desirable to display large jackpot dollar amounts. However, these large jackpots are by necessity relatively infrequent events. Thus if a card game picks four seven cards as a jackpot hand, they have used an infrequent event which does not hold player attention. Thus there is a need for a card game system which can offer both large infrequent jackpots and smaller more frequent jackpots which will better hold the player's desire to continue playing the game.
The inventive game system and methods described below are revolutionary in providing a blackjack or other card game which allows both large infrequent jackpots and smaller more frequent jackpots to be offered. It further allows a casino to offer liberalized blackjack rules. This is accomplished without sacrificing the desirable aspects of playing blackjack which have made the game so popular.